


eye of the storm

by queerli



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Ambassador Sokka, Anxiety, Canon Characters of Color, Fire Lord Zuko, Fluff, Gen, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Post-Canon, Pre-Slash, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 21:08:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21575395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queerli/pseuds/queerli
Summary: Sokka was staring at him, and he wasn’t even trying to be subtle about it.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 855





	eye of the storm

Sokka was staring at him.

Sokka was staring at him, and he wasn’t even trying to be subtle about it. Zuko was unnerved, despite himself. He kept flubbing his calligraphy, fingers slipping on his brush and splattering ink-drops across the page. When Zuko stopped to scowl down at the smeared parchment, Sokka hastily ducked behind the blueprints he was ostensibly working on, but hardly a minute later he was back to watching Zuko, darting furtive glances at him that slowly morphed into much longer and more obvious periods of staring.

Zuko’s spine prickled. The knot of anxiety in his chest tightened further. He hated it when people tried to watch him read or work. Sokka was a friend, and Zuko trusted him with his life, but some holdover still lingered from the days when Zuko was forced to hide his scrolls and writings from his father, fearing mockery or a reprimand or worse. Sokka, the logical part of Zuko knew, would never judge him, would never laugh at the scrolls he read or the words he wrote. And yet Zuko’s heart continued to pound away like a frantic jackal-rabbit’s.

…Sokka was still staring at him. It wouldn’t have been so awful had he not been so un-Sokka-ly _silent_ about it.

Zuko took a deep breath. This was nothing to get worked up over. Sokka was probably just lost in thought and not even aware of what he was doing. He could handle this calmly.

“What do you _want?”_

…The words came out far more aggressively than Zuko had intended, and wasn’t that just the story of his life. But anger was still safer than insecurity. He glared at Sokka, companion to the Avatar, Ambassador of the Southern Water Tribe, and hero of the Hundred-Year War, who blinked rapidly as though coming out of a trance, then looked taken aback at Zuko’s outburst.

“What do you mean?” Sokka asked, bewildered.

Zuko glared harder. At least that was one thing that came easy to him. “You know what I mean. If you have something to say to me, then _say it._ ”

A moment later, Sokka’s lips formed an ‘o’ of realization, then flattened out into a thin line. His face cycled through several emotions at once—exasperation, concern, a slight melancholia, before settling on fond, and perhaps a little sad.

The two of them sat there for a few moments longer in silence. Zuko squashed down the urge to flee.

“Zuko,” Sokka said abruptly. “Can I hug you?”

Now it was Zuko’s turn to blink and stare. “W-What?” his traitorous mouth stuttered before he could collect himself.

But Sokka was already scooching closer, arms half-raised in invitation, and before he knew it, Zuko was sinking forward and melting into Sokka’s side, dropping his brush to clutch the edges of his leather tunic. Sokka’s grip was supportive, brushing easily past the stuffy layers of Fire Lord robes to reach the teenager underneath.

“You’re okay,” Sokka said into his good ear, as Zuko gulped in suddenly shaky breaths. “You’re okay. We’re all okay.”

“I’m—” The words stopped in his throat. Zuko swallowed and tried again. “I’m scared I won’t do this right. That I’ll screw it all up. There’s just… there’s just so much that could go wrong.”

Sokka only hugged him tighter. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to; his steadfast support was made clear by his warm presence, the strength of his embrace, even in the way he awkwardly patted at Zuko’s hair. It was… soothing. Safe. Zuko closed his eyes, and let himself be held.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this at 4 a.m. because I'm stressed about exams, lol. This is my first work in this fandom, so I'm still learning my way around these wonderful characters.
> 
> Check out my ATLA blog @elimentals on tumblr, where I chatter nonstop about the Avatarverse! This fic (and future fics) are also posted on there. 
> 
> Comments and kudos are always much appreciated. Thank you all for reading <3


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